Teenage pregnancies have become a public health issue because of their observed negative effects on
perinatal outcomes and long-term morbidity. The association of young maternal age and long-term morbidity is
usually confounded, however, by the high prevalence of poverty, low level of education, and single marital status
among teenage mothers. The authors assess the independent effect of teenage pregnancy on educational
disabilities and educational problems in a total population of children who entered kindergarten in Florida in
1992–1994 and investigate how controlling for potentially confounding factors affects the relation between
teenage pregnancies and poor outcome. When no other factors are taken into account, children of teenage
mothers have significantly higher odds of placement in certain special education classes and significantly higher
occurrence of milder education problems, but when maternal education, marital status, poverty level, and race
are controlled, the detrimental effects disappear and even some protective effects are observed. Hence, the
increased risk for educational problems and disabilities among children of teenage mothers is attributed not to
the effect of young age but to the confounding influences of associated sociodemographic factors. In contrast to
teen age, older maternal age has an adverse effect on a child’s educational outcome regardless of whether other
factors are controlled for or not. Am J Epidemiol 2001;154:212–20.